About Me

Jon Hallier developed a passion for games design from an early age.  When his parents were unable to afford a games console for his 9th birthday, he made up for it by drawing his own levels on A4 paper (complete with a cut-out  ‘Paper’ Mario).  Several years later, through trial and syntax errors, he eventually self-taught himself  BASIC on an antiquated Amstrad PCW (mostly by copying out program listings from Usborne games programming books — none of which worked, of course) and began making simple text-based computer games.

In 2002,  Jonathan released his first ‘game’ to the public — a  simple Max Payne modification which added a Japanese Katana sword to Max’s arsenal.  Two-and-a-half years and a LOT of work later, he and Shane ‘StratonAce’ Paluski would release the critically acclaimed Max Payne total conversion: Katana.  Fusing the fast-paced, extreme combat from games like Devil May Cry, with Max Payne’s trademark cinematic action and Bullet-Time effects;  Katana threw players into the violent and chaotic world of an assassin on the run.  Following Katana, Jonathan has subsequently produced and co-developed a number of popular mods/total conversions, including Polar Paradise, The Real World, and Mona: The Assassin.

In 2008, Jonathan graduated from the University of Abertay Dundee with first class honours in Game Production Management.  At university he was responsible for co-producing and delivering several game projects; writing and directing a short movie; and routinely delivering presentations and game ‘pitches’ to university staff, students, and guests.  His dissertation Survival of the Fittest* explored the emerging ‘Agile Production’ strategies employed by small independent developers such as Remedy Entertainment (Max Payne, Alan Wake) and Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie, Hail to the Chimp) to survive under increasingly difficult market conditions.

For the last six years Jonathan has been actively involved in community management — first with 3D Realms as a forum moderator (for which he was credited on Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne), and then with Remedy as the Administrator on the Official Alan Wake forums.  In August 2009 he left the Alan Wake forum to focus on a career in games production.

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*Dissertation available on request.